Rare earth minerals are very important to geeks. These expensive and difficult to mine materials are used in some of the most popular gadgets on the market today. If you own a TV, laptop, or any of the latest handheld gadgets such as a tablet or smartphone, chances are there is some rare earth component included in the manufacturing process.

Deposits of these minerals are usually quite small meaning mining them is expensive and time consuming. Areas with high concentrations worth mining also seem to be quite rare, with China being the main area where mining is done. That’s not a great situation to be in as China holds around 97% of the market at the moment, so there’s ongoing exploration to find new locations worth mining elsewhere in the world.

We’ve already seen 26 locations in the Pacific Ocean have high concentrations of these minerals deep below the sea bed, but now a tiny village in Nebraska has also been found to be rich in deposits. So rich in fact, it may be the largest untapped deposit on earth.

The 112 people living in Elk Creek are understandably very happy about this discovery as it has brought new investment to their village. Initial discovery drilling by Quantum Rare Earths Developments Corp. has returned positive results for a rich vein of rare earth minerals and niobium–used in steel production, superalloys, and superconducting magnets to name but a few uses.

Elk Creek is now likely to become a new, and very important mining location going forward. Not only does this discovery remove the need to go to China for rare earth minerals, it also creates new jobs, generates revenue, and guarantees supplies for many years to come.

Speak Your Mind

Arsenic compounds in processing byproducts won’t taste funny to you for very long…

Reaper

Why? Is there mashed potatoes too?

Anonymous

More like a wooden box, 6 feet under

David Khanaferov

its Nebraska with 112 people population. Given them houses somewhere else and mine all u want. Why is China so damn rich, well when they find resouces like these they take the people move them somewhere else and they profit off the resources. Here people like are going to protest and say dumb shit like no we dont need to mine for rare minerals.

brone –

Many people believe the rule of law is why America is a better place to live than China ;)

Anonymous

Reducing pollution cuts into profits. The Republicans want to deregulate corporations which will allow them to pollute the environment YOU have to live in. The rich owners of those companies can afford to live in less polluted areas but you cannot. If you want to reduce pollution then vote Democrat. As society and industry become more complex we need bigger government to keep corporations in line. History has proven over and over that if corporations are not regulated they will do whatever is cheapest even if it means people will dies. You can call it whatever dirty name you want, socialism for example, but it’s still just sticking up for the rights and well being of the little guy.

jwmort

I love all the mining expert’s comments … makes me wonder why they aren’t inventing a better methodology for mining instead of spouting a political spin on this story. That’s because they only spout off what they hear from their one sided news. Quit being lemmings.

http://www.facebook.com/woody188 Mike Wood

Yup, because in America an individual’s rights are more important than the State’s. At least it used to be that way…